Tag Archives: Russia Connectxion

Mitch McConnell – Hypocrite for the Ages

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In the April 6 edition of the Washington Post, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wrote “Reaping what they have sown,” devoted to blaming the Democratic Party in Congress for, in effect, forcing Republicans to use the “nuclear option” to stop the filibuster of the Supreme Court nomination of Neil Gorsuch. http://wapo.st/2oVsKeP. McConnell called the Democratic filibuster of the Gorsuch nomination an “unprecedented attack on the traditions of the Senate.”

Not one word of McConnell’s 753-word “the devil made me do it” disquisition mentions the refusal of the Republican Party last year to even given a hearing, let alone a Senate vote, on President Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland for the seat that has now gone to Gorsuch.

Upon close examination, the real thrust of the piece is not to poke the Democrats about resisting Gorsuch per se. It is rather to say to Democrats, and everyone else watching: “we beat you on this one and now you should start cooperating with us and the Trump agenda instead of your “blind “resistance” to anything and everything this president proposes.”

Ah, yes, it’s time to stop resisting and start cooperating. See my blog post immediately preceding this one, entitled “On Tyranny-Read It Now.” McConnell’s call for “cooperation” is precisely what Timothy Snyder warns against in his prescient treatment of the sources of authoritarianism.

McConnell’s piece ends with this:

“Perhaps this is the moment Democrats will begin again to listen the many Americans – the people who sent us here – who want real solutions so we can work together to help move our country forward.”

Consistently with the rest of his thoughts, McConnell overlooks the fact that while Trump won the Electoral College vote, the majority of American’s voted for someone else. There is no case for listening to the Republican minority now. Indeed, as the former Democrats who flipped for Trump continue to become aware of how the Trump/McConnell/Ryan agenda is going to actually defeat their interests, it is reasonable to expect, by 2018 mid-terms, a significant shift away from the party that proposes to gut the federal government, reverse the environmental rules that have resulted in massive improvements in air and water quality and … on and on. Mr. McConnell is feeling pretty smug right now so he can, with a straight face, now call on Democrats to “cooperate.”

As long as the President of the United States continues to lie about the Russia connection (see “White House assertions on intelligence and Russia” in Fact Checker, Washington Post print edition, Sunday, April 9, 2017, inexplicably not online, at A2), promotes health legislation that reduces coverage for millions, supports desecration the environment and wanton killing of animals on federal land, to name just a few, there can be no “cooperation.” McConnell and the Republican Party’s hypocrisy is on full display now as the administration careens from one side of the listing ship of state to the other, with no principled leadership or strategy. So, NO, Mr. McConnell, there will be no “cooperation.”

Trump Completes New Secret Wall: the Great Stonewall

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The news has leaked out that President Trump has secretly built a new, not previously announced, wall that was finished in the dark of night while the nation slept. It stretches from coast to coast and from Canada to Mexico.

It’s called the Great Stonewall. It’s a replica of a stonewall we’ve seen before:  Watergate. It comes with the bilious stench of “cover-up” that just won’t go away.

The Great Stonewall was built by a select team of Trump insiders and Republican supplicants on Capitol Hill: Trump himself, Bannon, Conway, Spicer, Miller, the Republican majority on the House Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and others. The Great Stonewall has the same characteristics as all of its predecessors: dissembling (well, that meeting was in my “other capacity” so the fact that I didn’t mention it when asked under oath is of no consequence), misdirection and just plain lies.

The cost of the Great Stonewall is considerable: among them, the further loss of credibility of many leading players in the Trump ensemble, including the President himself, untold damage to the democratic process and, if the worst fears are true, serious potential harm to the security of the country. The problem is made worse, of course, by the fact that the President and members of his entourage have lied about so many things, so consistently, throughout the campaign and since the election, that it is difficult to credit anything they say when the truth could be so damaging to their situation.

The solution seems obvious: If there is nothing to hide, appoint an independent “prosecutor” (call him/her what you like: “investigator” would be fine) to dig out the documents, transcripts and other relevant material, take testimony under oath and eventually to get to the bottom of the “Russia Connection” and make a full public report of findings. If there is nothing to hide, Trump and his gang will come out way ahead … if there is nothing to hide. If there is something to hide, then heads, perhaps many of them, will roll, as well they should.

I, of course, don’t know whether there is anything to hide; no one does. But I do know one thing that I believe is irrefutable: it is not acceptable to expect the American people to believe in an investigation of the potentially guilty parties conducted by of themselves or by their political allies in Congress.  There must be an independent investigation. If not, this issue will haunt this administration for the rest of its days. The Great Stonewall must come down.